Basket of Apples and Peaches

By 1630 Zurbarán had made his name in Seville painting saints and white-robed monks for the city's monasteries. A basket of apples and peaches was a different kind of job. Spanish collectors prized these plain arrangements, and he gave the fruit the same handling as his holy figures: a few objects on a bare ledge, lit hard from one side, the rest sinking into shadow. Still life is rare in his work, and within his own family it is hard to pin down. His son Juan, born in 1620, became the household's specialist in fruit and flowers, so pictures like this have shifted between father, son and workshop as scholars weigh the brushwork. This one is usually placed with the father, in the years he was busiest with commissions for the church.